Mumbai: Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd, the non-life insurance arm of Reliance Capital Ltd, on Monday filed its so-called draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for its initial public offering (IPO)

According to the DRHP, the company plans to sell 16.77 million shares to raise primary capital. The proceeds from the fresh issue will be used by the company for augmenting its solvency margin and to meet future capital requirements. P

romoter Reliance Capital Ltd plans to sell 50.3 million shares through a secondary share sale, as part of the proposed IPO. Reliance General Insurance offers a range of insurance products in the motor, weather and crop, health, fire and engineering, and marine insurance sectors.

In the non-life insurance sector, Reliance General will be the second private sector insurer to go public. In September, general insurance company ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd raised Rs5,700 crore by going public. The IPO, a pure offer for sale, saw ICICI Bank and Fairfax sell around 86.24 million shares.

The filing of Reliance General’s DRHP also comes at a time when the Indian capital market has been witnessing a spurt in insurance IPOs. On Wednesday, state-owned General Insurance Corp. of India Ltd (GIC Re) said it will launch its Rs11,372 crore IPO on 11 October. It is the largest IPO in India in seven years.

In September, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd, a joint venture between India’s largest lender State Bank of India and BNP Paribas Cardif, raised Rs8,400 crore by going public. State-owned New India Assurance Co. Ltd and HDFC Life Insurance Co. Ltd too have filed their DRHPs with Sebi.Link